VICTORIA — The week began with one of those question periods where the Hansard transcript almost needed footnotes, there being so much backstory behind the charges flying back and forth across the floor of the house.

Opposition leader John Horgan led off by asking about Premier Christy Clark’s $150,000-a-year man on the liquefied natural gas beat, Gordon Wilson.

Say, isn’t that the same Gordon Wilson who “came home to the B.C. Liberal party” and endorsed Clark on the eve of the last election?

Who before that served as a cabinet minister in the New Democratic Party government that Horgan served as a staffer in the late 1990s?

And before that quit the B.C. Liberal party (where Clark herself was serving as a staffer) on losing the leadership to Gordon Campbell?

Suffice to say the Wilson name packs a lot of baggage on both sides of the house.

Horgan wanted to know why the Liberals had recently extended Wilson’s appointment as Buy B.C. LNG advocate for another two years “when there’s no LNG to advance?”

The question prompted some awkward jockeying on the government side.

The advocacy position is in the bailiwick of Jobs Minister Shirley Bond and she dutifully got to her feet, prepared to defend her appointee in her usual down-to-earth fashion. Instead she was upstaged by the blustery Minister for Natural Gas Development Rich Coleman.

“Now, I know that the leader opposite is ‘no’ to natural gas development, ‘no’ to LNG, has been all along, will continue to be that way,” Coleman fulminated. And so on through the thousands of jobs that are already dependent on the natural gas sector, the dozen and a half proposals in the works, and the $20 billion that has supposedly been spent by would-be developers without making a final investment decision on even one LNG terminal.

“It’s always nice to have a contribution from the minister of gas,” returned Horgan,” but I think the only (person) to have a future so far, with respect to LNG, is Gordon Wilson.”

The advocate was supposed to oversee development of an online tool where B.C. firms could sign up for LNG opportunities. The site had been developed by an outside contractor at a cost approaching $1 million. But the opportunities were nowhere to be found, near as the New Democrats could determine.

“I click on ‘opportunity,’” reported Horgan. “Do I find a welding job? Nope. Do I find anything for engineering firms? Nope. How about environmental consultancies? Nope. Nothing, zero, zilch, nada — not a single opportunity on the LNG tool.”

Given those results, Horgan couldn’t resist drawing attention to one of the aforementioned bits of political baggage: “Why is there such a commitment to Gordon Wilson? He said before the last election that everyone should vote for the premier. Maybe that’s why you’re so connected to him.”

Plus Wilson’s wife, Judi Tyabji, herself a former Liberal MLA, later NDP supporter, and now returnee to the Liberal fold, was writing a book about Clark. “Maybe that’s why you’re so committed to him.”

The Opposition trip down memory lane prompted a similar turn for Coleman. “What drives you crazy is that it’s a former NDP cabinet minister that’s actually found a life and come over to the side of free enterprise.”

Then, with gale-force Coleman having blown himself out, Bond finally got in a word.

“On the website, there are 600 businesses that have registered,” the jobs minister advised the house. “Mr. Wilson has worked around B.C. to talk to businesses, to non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal alike, to ensure that they have the opportunity to participate. Mr. Wilson has done good work. We intend to continue to see him do additional work.”

While the Liberals sound confident in Wilson’s abilities now, they had their doubts going in. His first appointment was for a tentative four months and they kept him on a short leash through three extensions of the same length. Apparently he cleared probation, for in 2015 he was extended a full year and this month that became two more.

Once Bond responded Monday, the Opposition moved on to other topics. But later in the afternoon, I got a call from Wilson himself, which came as a bit of a surprise.

When he was first put on contract in the fall of 2013, I called him for a comment only to discover that he was no longer authorized to talk to the media, something he’d done with considerable abandon up to that point.

But on Monday he received special dispensation from Bond to talk to members of the media and try to set the record straight about the website.

As Wilson told it, the would-be LNG developers are still in the pre-qualification stage and lining up B.C. firms who will then be eligible to bid on work down the road. Moreover, most businesses will likely proceed in partnership with aboriginal firms, given the critical importance of First Nations in LNG development. In the meantime, Wilson is spending much of his time on the road, dealing directly with First Nations, chambers of commerce and others on specific projects.

With that, he was off to Terrace and the next round of meetings on what is apparently a well-travelled assignment — and a lucrative one too.

For whatever the results of Wilson’s advocacy on the LNG file, by the time the current appointment runs out in early 2018, taxpayers will have shelled out a total of $650,000 for his services.